Fantision

Prolific producer who has released almost 50 albums in the last 10 years doesn't rush his electro-acoustic soundscapes here.

Given his fast-growing discography, it might seem wrong to call Dino Felipe "patient." About a decade into his recording career, he remains as prolific as ever. He released four discs in April alone, and recently compiled an mp3 DVD of the 48 albums he's made so far. Still, all of his music that I've heard has a distinct sense of patience. He may not take much time between releases, but it sounds like he rarely rushes through any individual recording.

Thoughtful calm is the focus of Fantision, Felipe's latest album for Schematic, the Miami label that's supported much of his work since releasing his 2002 debut. Mixing prickly digital noise with acoustic guitar, soft percussion, and some sneaky vocals, Felipe constructs his pieces like jigsaw puzzles, avoiding set patterns and predictable shapes. Yet the sounds he shoots around the stereo space are mostly tempered and restrained, bearing an internal logic that strips them of novelty or shock value. This results in tracks that feel like songs despite rarely behaving that way.

The melodic aspects morph continually, with hints of structure emerging and retreating in gradual cycles. On "o8", languid strumming akin to Sung Tongs-era Animal Collective melts into gurgling electronics, while "o3" slices wafts of drone into shadowy rhythms before melting back down into sonic lava. Throughout, Felipe's bag of tricks never empties. While his sonic palette is pretty basic, his moves from one hue to the other are always inventive and carefully chosen. Such motion stands out on Fantision's best track, "o13", which is also its most song-like. Here, halting guitar and eerie vocals transform a slow waltz into a freak-show nursery rhyme. Much of the album is similarly creepy, but even the oddest sounds mesmerize, much the way that weird events in dreams make sense to the passive dreamer. In other words, the chills Felipe gives you are more likely to soothe than disorient.

Felipe has always been a bit of a musical chameleon, jumping between different styles and hitting lots of reference points along the way. You'll likely recognize a few of those here-- I heard echoes of the Residents, the Books, Ben Frost, and Tyondai Braxton. But what impresses most is how Fantision sounds primarily like itself. The first few seconds immediately establish a tone and a mood that remain solid to the end. This creates an authoritative feel similar to how the best film directors leave traces of their aesthetic in every cut, pan, and fade to black. Dino Felipe is that kind of auteur, and Fantision looks and sounds like his best sonic movie so far.